Old Pic Used to Claim Erdogan Refused to Shake Hands With Macron

The image is from 2018 and other images from the same day show that the two leaders did shake hands with each other.

An old image has been revived to falsely claim that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and French President Emmanuel Macron did not shake hands with each other.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A viral image claims to show a seemingly recent interaction between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and French President Emmanuel Macron where in the former allegedly refused to shake hands with the French president.

However, we found that the image was taken in September 2018 and other images from the same day show that the two leaders did shake hands with each other.

The claim comes in the backdrop of Turkish president asking Turks to boycott French goods and that he criticised the French president for his approach towards Islam. Turkey’s move comes after a school teacher was beheaded in Paris for allegedly showed controversial caricatures of Prophet Mohammed.

CLAIM

The claim along with the image reads: “Turkey president Rajab Tayub Erdogan refused to hand shake with France president Macron. (sic)”

You can view the archived version here.

Several social media users shared the image on Facebook and Twitter with the same claim.

You can view the archived version here.

You can view the archived version here.

WHAT WE FOUND OUT

We reverse-searched the image on Google and found an article published in 2019 that had carried the viral image and had attributed it to Getty Images.

With relevant keyword searches on Getty Images, we found that the image was captured in September 2018 when the French President met his Turkish counterpart at the UN headquarters during the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York City.

We found another image from the same event in which the two leaders can be seen shaking hands with each other.

Evidently, an old image has been revived to falsely claim that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and French President Emmanuel Macron did not shake hands with each other.

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